A Life Lost
by Furcht
Summary: What if Harry never met Ron on the train? What if Harry didn't know which house to avoid? Watch as Harry is sent careening on an irrevocable path to darkness.
1. New Hopes

**NEW HOPES**

Number 4, Privet Drive housed the most normal family anyone could ever hope to meet. The patriarch of said family, the Dursleys, was one Vernon Dursley and he worked in a very normal firm, Grunnings, and earned a tidy amount with which to support his family. With, and often without, casual inquiries about the health and general well being of his family he would proudly talk of his respectable house-wife and growing son, but under no circumstances would he mention the other child that occupied his house.  
The child, Harry Potter, was after all, everything his family stood against, that is to say, abnormal. For Harry was not a Dursley child, but the son of Petunia Dursley's late sister, the wife of James Potter, but far more importantly, the wife of a wizard the very epitome of abnormality.  
The Dursleys treated the unfortunate child the only way they knew how, with absolute disdain, locking him in the cupboard under the stairs and stoutly refusing to acknowledge the fact that he existed. They refused to allow the filth of magic to taint their family again and tried in every possible way to abolish any of its traces in Harry. In their attempts to do just that, they rebuffed any questions about Harry's parents, simply saying that James Potter was a drunk and died with his wife in a car crash, which unfortunately merely laid a scar upon Harry's head instead of killing him, leaving him alive to burden the poor Durselys. Anything that seemed even remotely like magic on Harry's part led to severe punishments, as did any mention of the dreaded topic.

It was with this utmost loathing of the abnormal that they received Harry's letter of placement at Hogwarts. Petunia, remembering a time long past, when a similar owl had swooped in and delivered the same letter, stealing forever her sister, could scarcely control her emotions, and barely held her tears inside. Vernon did the only thing his rather simple mind could think of, and took to camping near the door to prevent Harry from the reading the letters and realizing exactly what he was, that is, a wizard. Eventually when the ever increasing torrent of letters intent of being read by Harry grew to an intolerable level, Vernon packed his family away to a holiday to a remote shack in the middle of a lake, and went on a long detour often doubling back and retracing his path, as he had seen many spies do in movies in order to throw the letters of track.  
And so it was that during a stormy night, they dragged themselves of a wreck of a boat into an equally wrecked house and ate the meager rations Vernon had managed to procure, through much loud complaining by Dudley, the Durley's own son, and eventually fell into a troubled sleep on the eve of Harry's birthday. As the clock twelve, the thunder and lightning still raged over their shabby lodgings, and with a blow that sounded like thunder, the door broke through its hinges and flew onto a nearby wall, shattering on impact, revealing a massive silhouette whose form couldn't be contained by the doorframe.  
The enormous man, then slowly eased himself under the doorframe and into the shack, having to bend slightly to avoid hitting the roof, and then proceeded to stare at Harry. It was this sight that the startled Dursleys awoke to see. Vernon quickly reached into his bag and removed his gun, which he had brought along for just such an eventuality and with trembling hands pointed it at the strange monster in front of him. The stranger proceeded to calmly grab the gun and twist it like so much putty before throwing it aside. Then, under the severe protestations of Vernon, he proceeded to introduce himself as Hagrid, the Keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizadry, all the while getting increasingly agitated as he realized that the Durleys has told Harry nothing of his heritage and had the gall to say the Potters died in a car crash. Vernon got equally flustered as he realized things had long since spiraled out of his control and that the taint of abnormality would touch his family.  
Through all the yelling and gesturing, Hagrid managed to convey to Harry that he was indeed a wizard, and delivered his letter of acceptance to Hogwarts, whereupon Vernon once again regained his courage and pulled himself together to yell out that he was **not** going to pay some "insane old crackpot" to corrupt Harry, a decidedly stupid move, but then again, no one ever praised Vernon for his intelligence. In retaliation, Hagrid brandished a pink umbrella he was holding, and with a loud **crack! **Dudley suddenly had a pig's tail at the end of his rather large behind, and he quickly whimpered off somewhere, attempting to hide his bulk behind his mother.

Vernon, finally realizing just how badly the situation was, quickly grabbed his family and fled into another room, by the time he managed to gather enough courage to timidly peek out the door, he realized that the giant of a brute was gone and had taken Harry, and good riddance. Soon after, the Dursleys returned to their home, wondering how their shattered illusion of normality could ever be repaired, and it was quickly decided that the first step would be getting Dudley's tail surgically removed, and while they were planning a cover story for the sudden appearance of the tail, the doorbell rang. Fearing the worst, Vernon quietly grabbed his gun, having bought a new one on the way back home, and opened the door, to find Harry staring back at him. Vernon quickly decided that it was not worth it to risk his family's well being again simply to turn the ingrate out, and so consented to let the boy back in and into his relatively new room.  
When Harry asked to be dropped in Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, Vernon doubted he could possibly have been happier, as he knew that the platform did not exist, so he happily agreed to drop Harry there on the way to taking Dudley to a top plastic surgeon.  
As Vernon dropped Harry off in the station, he wondered how long it would take for the boy to drag himself home after realizing the platform didn't exist, he didn't dare hope that the rascal wouldn't manage to lose himself and never be seen again, fearing for his family. He managed to not gloat, simply out of fear of retribution, and breathed a long sigh of relief as he drove away, leaving the boy behind.

* * *

Harry sat flabbergasted as Hagrid talked of the magical world, and the evil wizard Voldemort who had murdered his parents, who had **not **died in a car crash, and how he had somehow survived Voldemort's curse, sending it back on the man and banishing him, leaving only the scar on his forehead behind. He barely concealed a grin as Dudley got his pig tail, and tried, and failed miserably, to conceal his laugh, when he realized that Dudley was supposed to have become a pig, but was too much like one to be changed. He was awestruck as Hagrid lead him into Diagon Alley, revealing a world completely hidden to the non-magical people, the muggles.  
His mood took a drastic turn for the worse, however, when he realized he would need to purchase several things in order to attend the school, as he had no money, and Uncle Vernon had very clearly stated that he would not pay for Harry's magical education. This directly lead to his most surprising conversation yet, when Hagrid told him, in no uncertain terms that his parents had not left Harry poor, quite to the contrary, they had left him a rather large sum of money, which, of course, the Dursleys had not been informed of. So they went to Gringotts, to withdraw money to buy his things, stopping on the way so that Hagrid could complete an errand for Headmaster Dumbledore and removed a grubby little package from a high security vault numbered seven hundred and thirteen. Harry prodded a bit, and Hagrid mentioned that Dumbledore was doing his friend Nicholas Flamel a favour.  
After leaving Gringotts, Hagrid took Harry to get his robes measured out in Madam Malkins. Unfortunately, while getting his robes measured out, he met a Draco Malfoy, and had one of the most uncomfortable conversations of his life, and sighed, realizing that he would have to go to the same school as Malfoy. Harry was, however, lifted out of his bad mood when Hagrid presented him with a beautiful snowy owl as a birthday present, while Harry went through the common etiquette of declining the gift, he was nonetheless thrilled to receive something so beautiful, and more so when he realized how useful owls were.

Harry's mood then plummeted again when he realized he was to go back to Dursleys till school started, and after safely tucking his train ticket in his trunk, he quietly walked back from the train station to Number 4, expecting a severe punishment for Hagrid's actions. He was pleasantly surprised when Uncle Vernon let him in without a word and he escaped punishment, he was, in fact, more or less ignored for the remainder of his stay at the house, and even managed to get a ride to King's Station.

Once in the station, he soon realized exactly why Uncle Vernon was in such a good mood, the platform upon which the train was supposed to be waiting simply did not exist, which he found out thanks to a very disgruntled officer in the station. Just as Harry was starting to despair, he saw a sea of red, and realized that the family was acting distinctly odd, so he shuffled over to see what was going on. He heard a few stray words, such as "muggles" and "Hogwarts" and quickly realized the family were wizards and would most likely know how to get to the platform, so he quietly walked up to the mother and politely asked her how he could get through to the platform.  
Upon making it through the wall with a redhead that looked to be around his age, he started to walk towards the train, when two twins, again of the same family, Weasley's, he found out they were, offered to carry his trunk for him, and he gladly accepted. He entered an empty compartment, and suddenly felt sleepy, so he closed the compartment door, stretched out and drifted into a shallow sleep, dreaming about everything magical. He dreamt of Diagon Alley, and all the shops he had seen there, and then slowly he started to dream about the instances when he had accidentally used magic, remembering the time when he had re-grown his hair overnight after a particularly bad haircut by his Aunt. He dreamt of the time when, while fleeing Dudley as his gang, he had jumped and landed on top of his school building, and most recently, the time he had released the boa from its glass cage in the zoo, and had spoken to it. When he woke up later, he would wonder about that particular ability, and wondered if every wizard could talk to animals.

* * *

Ronald Weasley walked by the train and eventually came upon the compartment containing the sleeping boy his brothers told him was Harry Potter. He had been intent on sitting with and talking to the boy he, like all others, considered a hero, but seeing him peacefully sleeping, Ronald decided to leave him alone and try another compartment.

* * *

At Hogwarts, the staff was pleasantly surprised to see Professor Trelawney join them for a rare meal in the dining room, and were enjoying a conversation when she suddenly stiffened and starting muttering portents of doom, and innocence being forever tainted.

Professor McGonagall uncharacteristically snorted and said, "Save your tripe for your new students Sybill, they actually believe it!" The rest of the staff similarly dismissed Professor Trelawney's regular doom-sayings and continued their meal.


	2. Destiny's Hand

**DESTINY'S HAND**

Harry eventually woke up to the sound of the other students leaving the train, and he quickly pulled his robe on and rushed out of the train. He followed some children he thought were around his age and reached the lake to be cheerfully greeted by Hagrid and ushered into a boat. The sight of the enormous castle suitably awed him, and he quietly waited in line as a strict professor herded his fellow first years.

The professor, McGonagall she introduced herself as, soon left them to their own devices and took a battered old rag of a hat and placed it upon a small stool. Harry stared and wondered what such a dirty thing was doing in the opulence of a hall filled with gold and almost jumped with surprise when the hat started singing. The fact that they were sorted by simply putting a hat on caused a series of relieved sighs from those who had expected to wrestle trolls.

Professor McGonagall quickly started calling out names of the first years, beckoning them forward to be sorted. Harry waited patiently for his turn and watches as the hat yelled out words like "Huffelpuff!", "Gryffindor!", "Slytherin!" and "Ravenclaw" and suddenly dearly wished he had read up earlier and found out more about the houses, all he knew was what the hat had sang. A sudden silence permeated when Harry's own name was called, and he vaguely recalled Hagrid saying he was famous in the wizarding world, but he had never expected an arrival quite like this. Wrong-footed by his reception, he scampered over to the hat and pulled it over his head, watching as it dropped to completely engulf his small head.

"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear, causing him to let out a involuntary squeak. "Difficult. Very Difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes – and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting… So where should I put you?"

Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, "Wherever you think I'll be best."

"Wherever you could be best eh?" said the small voice. "You could be great you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on your way to greatness, no doubt about that – So you'll go in SLYTHERIN!" While Harry had thought the previous silence was bad, he was nowhere near prepared for the ringing hush that greeted the Sorting Hat's announcement. He shuffled over to a seat in his new House, wondering why his sorting had caused such a surprise, and then he heard the harsh whispers that cut through the hush and suddenly wished for the peace of silence again. Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and continued with the sorting, though even she looke da bit surprised.

Once the last boy – Zabini, Blaise, was sorted, Professor Dumbledore raised to give the singularly most odd speech Harry had ever heard before clapping his hands to fill each table with food.

"So you are Harry Potter," drawled a voice, which Harry quickly recognized to belong to Draco Malfoy. "Well Potter, we probably got off on the wrong foot, but you'll soon find that some wizarding families are better than others, and you don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." With that he held his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry calmly refused the hand.

"I can tell who the wrong sort are myself, thank you, and you fit firmly into that category," he coldly replied.

"I'd be careful if I were you Potter," Malfoy said slowly, a slight pink tinge appearing on his face. "You wouldn't want to go the way of your parents, especially seeing you're entering the snake's nest." Turning on his heel, Malfoy walked to another corner of the table, leaving Harry alone again.

After dinner, Professor Dumbledore gave a small speech regarding the rules, and expressly forbade anyone from going to a corridor in the third floor, unless they wanted to die a painful death. Harry found this a bit odd, but was interrupted from his musings when the prefects gathered up and house and led them towards the dungeons and away from the other three houses. Deeper and deeper the prefects led them, until eventually they stopped at a bare, damp stone wall. Harry thought the prefects to be daft for stopping in the middle of nowhere, when one of them muttered, "Mudblood", and a concealed stone door opened, revealing the Slytherin common room. Harry was, to say the least, disappointed, it resembled a long, bleak corridor, with occasional green lamps chained to the ceiling. The only thing that looked remotely like any effort had been made while making it was the elaborately carved mantelpiece. There were carved chairs scattered across the common room, mostly near the fireplace.

A prefect took the first year boys to a remote corner of the common room and pointed at a dark carved door that opened to stairs descending even further into the castle's depths and informed them that their dorms would be at the end of the staircase. Before any of them could enter the doorway, however, the prefect stopped them and directed them back to the center of the common room, where they found a professor with greasy hair, a hooked nose and sallow skin awaiting them.

"This is Professor Snape, the head of our illustrious house, and the Potions Master," was the last thing the prefect said before bowing and retreating into the shadows.

"I am Professor Snape and I am the head of your house," the professor began, "and I would like all of you to remember that fact, and treat me the deference that warrants. Anyone who undermines my authority," here he sneered at all the first years, pausing to glare for a while at Harry. "Will be dealt with severely. As your head of house, I control your fates, should you put one miserable toe put of line, I will have you expelled, you shall not befoul the name of Slytherin!

"The other Heads of houses will not be delivering a similar speech to their first years, but I feel that our much maligned house deserves separate treatment. Any and all conflicts between yourselves should be resolved, and quickly, only inside the walls of this room, outside we must be united, because no one else will stand up for any of you. For better or worse, you are on your own, it would do you well to remember that fact.

"And now, I must move onto the most pressing topic, regarding one Harry Potter. Potter, I use this opportunity to remind you that your, ah… celebrity status will amount for nothing here in Slytherin, or Hogwarts for that matter. I don't know what perverted God would send you to sully Slytherin's name, but I will stand for none of it! Should you commit a single mistake, I will be forced to come down especially hard on you, after all, someone needs to flush that arrogance out of you. I suggest you remember that Potter, for if the Slytherin's will make an exception to our unity, it will be you who is excluded." With a flourish of his robes, Professor Snape was gone, leaving Harry once again to the mercy of the Slytherin's who seemed to have taken Snape's hint.

"Refusing to shake to hand of a prominent pureblood is hardly going to improve your reputation here in Slytherin, Potter." A prefect snarled, "Need I remind you that your mother was a mudblood? We don't want your kind here, and we would be more than happy to show you to what lengths we are willing to go to keep you in line." At the periphery of his vision, Harry was sure he could see Malfoy smirking, but he didn't dare tear his gaze away from the intimidating prefect in front of him.

Then as suddenly as the lecture began, it ended, with the prefect calmly walking away, and the tension in the room visibly dropping, not knowing what else to do, Harry silently walked to his four poster and curled up in bed, trying to sleep.

The next day, Harry woke up early and left for the Great Hall early to avoid meeting any more of his housemates, it wasn't the smartest thing he could have done, since he had no idea now to get to the Great Hall, and was hopelessly lost within a few minutes. He decided that his best option would be to climb as many stairs as possible, since he remembered that the Slytherin common room was deep inside Hogwarts dungeons. He occasionally met a few older students of different houses and asked them how to get to the Great Hall, but they merely gazed at him suspiciously before ignoring him and leaving. It was with increasing desperation and frustration that Harry continued to search, finally stumbling upon the Great Hall purely by chance. Once inside the hall, he quickly ran to his table and started to eat, since by now he was late for breakfast.

Only one thought repeatedly passed through his mind as he ate, 'Why are the students here so mean? What did I do to warrant that kind of attention?' While these bleak thoughts were racing their way through his mind, Professor McGonagall came and delivered his timetable, and he got even more depressed when he saw that he had a class with that horrid Professor Snape that day itself.

The defense against dark arts class with Professor Quirrel proved to be exceptionally odd. Professor Quirrel was a slight man, with a large turban obscuring most of his head and spoke with a pronounced stutter, none of this helping to prove his claims of fighting off vampires and werewolves. To Harry, however, the oddest thing about Professor Quirrel was that when class was starting, and his name was called in roll, Professor Quirrel had stared at him for an abnormally long period of time, and he had felt a sharp stab of pain on his forehead. The pain had quickly disappeared, but it still made Harry curious.

The potions classed passed as he had predicted with Professor Snape being exceptionally strict with him and handing out a week of detentions.

The Gryiffindors were not openly hostile like the Slytherins had been in the dorm the previous night, but were distant and tended to ignore him given the chance. Harry felt a slight pang of hurt at their attitudes, wondering again what he had done, before putting it off to house rivalry.

Transfiguration was exciting, with Professor McGonagall transforming from a tabby cat into her usual self, and transfiguring her desk into a pig and back. It was disappointing to hear that they wouldn't be able to do that just yet, but it was exciting knowing that they could someday. Professor McGonagall was strict, but at the very least, Harry thought, she was favor, not outwardly favoring any house, quite unlike Professor Snape.

History of magic with Professor Binns was exceptionally dull, and Harry started to wonder if the rumors that Professor Binns had bored himself to death with his own lectures had some substance in reality. The ghost taught in a dull monotone, and spoke purely of goblin revolutions and names that sounded infantile in their creation like Buckhammer and Strongboot.

Charms was fairly dull and only memorable by the fact that the tiny Professor Flitwick fell over while calling Harry's name in roll.

The next day, while eating breakfast Harry heard Malfoy talking to his two apish bodyguards about an attempted robbery in Gringotts, from vault seven hundred and thirteen. The vault sounded familiar to Harry and then he suddenly remembered that that was the vault from which Hagrid had withdrawn that grubby little package, effectively emptying the vault. It seemed an odd coincidence that the same day the object was removed someone had tried to steal it, and he decided that that was probably the reason it was removed, and thought the timing lucky. The bell rang and he quickly dismissed the thought before getting up and hurrying towards class.

On the way he heard a loud confrontation around the corner, and turned it in time to see Malfoy sending a curse to a retreating Ronald Weasley's back. The curse struck true and Weasley's front teeth started growing at an extraordinary rate. Malfoy suddenly turned around and seeing Harry, seemed to get an idea, and yelled out, "Keep out of my confrontations Potter, I can handle myself!" Professor McGonagall came around the corner, and saw Weasley on the ground clutching his face and Malfoy telling Harry to stay out of his problems, but two and two together and assigned a week of detentions to Harry and took twenty points from Slytherin. Harry tried to profess his innocence but was ignored and sent on his way in clean view of a smirking Malfoy.

"Told you you'd regret your decision Potter," Malfoy smirked before leaving for potions, to which Harry arrived late, again earning a detention. Harry's terrible mood wasn't helped by Professor Snape's frequent snide comments and by the end of the class he had earned himself several more detentions and wondered how he managed to book off the entire month worth detentions in less than two working days.

At the end of the day, while Harry was going to the Great Hall for dinner, three mops of read hair cornered him. "Thought you could mess with one of us did you, Potter?" one of the redheads, Fred Weasley Harry recalled, demanded. "Well, we have ways for dealing with your kind," and with a swish of his wand, Harry had pink hair and no way of removing the color. He fell down, shocked, as the Weasleys left, shaking his head and wondering if even in this world, the people would treat him just as the Dursleys had.

After dinner, Harry decided to go to the owlery to see how his owl, Hedwig, was doing. Hedwig flew down and landed on his outstretched hand when he reached, and playfully nipped his hand. Smiling, Harry gave her some of the food he had brought for her from dinner. He stayed with her for a couple of hours, slowly stroking her feathers and wondering exactly what he had got himself into by agreeing to join Hogwarts.

Eventually Harry realized that it was late, and if he didn't leave for his dorm soon, he might get another detention for wondering around the castle past curfew. He slowly got up and told Hedwig to go back to the owlery's rafters before trudging towards the Slytherin common room. When he reached, he realized the password had been changed without anyone informing him, and with a tired sigh, went to the wall and hunkered down for a cold night alone in the dungeons.

The next morning Harry was awoken by a sharp kick in the stomach that sent him sprawling against the wall. He looked up to see a furious seventh year, "So… You thought we'd allow to go around throwing Slytherin's hard-earned points away did you? Attacking another student in plain sight of a teacher? We may have ignored you before Potter, but you've really pushed your luck this time." With a sharp gesture, a prefect snapped his wand and hurled Harry into the common room. "Oh yes, you will be punished," the seventh year growled.

An hour later, a battered Harry crawled towards the Hospital Wing, and told an alarmed Madam Pomfrey that he had fallen down a flight of stairs. Pomfrey frowned at that, but didn't question him and sent a barrage of healing spells his way before giving him a few potions, which she told him to take every night for a week.

When Harry arrived in potions, Professor Snape merely said, "After class, Potter". He was so nervous about the upcoming punishment that he didn't hear the bell ringing, and was shaken out of his reverie only when Professor Snape twirled his wand and vanished the chair Harry was sitting on, and he fell hard on the unforgiving stone floor. "Potter, are you really thick enough to ignore all my warnings?" Snape hissed dangerously. "Are you so stupid that you did not realize that a professor was around when you chose to hex Weasley? Did you choose to come to Slyhterin merely to make my life hell and ruin our chances at the house cup? There is only so much one man can take Potter, do not try me again, one more foot out of line and I'll make sure you'll be expelled, make no mistake. Now get out of my office, I'm sure my Slytherins have already taught you enough of a lesson." Professor Snape smiled and with s swish of his robes had left for his office.

As Harry walked towards the owlery again, after a full day of classes filled with barbs from the other students, he simply couldn't comprehend what he had just heard. A professor had heard about the atrocities the Slytherin's had committed, and far from punishing them, he was encouraging them to take matters into their own hands. Harry let his first tears in years fall as he stroked Hedwig wondering why he was so badly cursed.


End file.
